Apple spams users to promote iPhone 6s

When Apple introduced 3D Touch on the iPhone 6S this September, it described the technology as a revolutionary paradigm for interacting with touchscreen devices.Mad Max: Fury Road topped the blockbusters, Uptown Funk was the earworm to beat the rest and the best iPhone app game of the year had Lara Croft back on the go.

The notification—advertising Apple’s latest “ridiculously powerful” smartphone—asks users to “Learn More” or “Upgrade Now.” Click the links, and you’ll be redirected to Cupertino’s website or the Apple Store app. The ad’s text, meanwhile, reads “iPhone 6s Ridiculously Powerful.” The reaction to the ads, first spotted by the blog Cult of Mac, has not been pleasant so far. Most users who are sharing the ads on social media, or discussing the problem on Reddit, don’t seem to think that Apple should be leveraging its own App Store application to deliver ads – especially those that are promoting its own products.

There’s some irony here as well, given that Apple introduced ad blocking capabilities with the release of the iOS 9 operating system, which allows web users the ability to better control how much advertising they’re exposed to when using their mobile devices, plus block other content that slows down browsing. When it comes to number crunching, Adele’s 25 pipped Taylor Swift’s 1989 at the top album charts on iTunes, while the top selling movie had Pixar’s Inside Out in the number one position on a diverse top 10 list that included the family friendly title of Big Hero 6, the action films Jurassic World and Kingsman: the Secret Service, and the not so family-friendly favourites of Fifty Shades of Grey and Gone Girl. A lot of big app developers haven’t added anything more than home screen shortcuts; that is, the Quick Actions that pop up when you press hard on an app’s icon.

And a search for “Music,” also around the same time last year, didn’t immediately return a list of streaming apps, but instead showed an ad for iTunes radio. In other words, Apple has already proven that it’s not above leveraging the App Store app’s reach in order to promote its products when it deems necessary. That’s because Apple didn’t make 3D Touch a total free-for-all: instead, it introduced the concepts of “peek” and “pop,” which let you preview (“peek at”) a photo, website, or some other content in a pop-up and then fully open (“pop into”) that app with a light and then hard press.

From a user’s perspective, at least, it seems hard to go wrong with adding peek to photos, albums, profiles, or really anything that would open up a new window. But that may also one reason we haven’t seen major apps like Facebook try anything with peek yet: if peeking reduces engagement — or the number of ads that can be served — it’s going to be bad for the app, and potentially for users as well (not the ads part, but you certainly wouldn’t want fewer people commenting on or liking your photos). Maybe that isn’t a concern and it’s just a matter of time until peek is ubiquitous, but I’d be surprised if some app makers aren’t taking this into consideration.

Here are a few of them: Pixelmator: If you’re drawing or painting in Pixelmator on the 6S, you can now alter the thickness of strokes based on how much pressure you’re applying to the screen. Like Periscope, it lets you give multiple hearts to someone to show that you’ve liked something of their’s, but rather than making you tap for each heart, Bumpn lets you give more hearts by pressing harder on the screen.

Unfortunately, Flickr has only implemented this so far for your own overall camera roll; it doesn’t work inside of albums or for other users, and it totally should. (Flickr does, however, let you do a standard peek at most profiles, photos, albums, and notifications.) Anyone who’s a repeat early adopter of new iPhones shouldn’t be surprised that support for the 6S’s flagship feature remains scattered close to three months in.